The March for Choice Dublin: The Perfect Example of Faux Feminism in Action

The March for Choice took place in the capital at the weekend, drawing a crowd estimated by event organisers to be between 30 and 40,000. The pro-abortion March, now in its sixth year, is the first major rally which has taken place since the Irish Government announced that a referendum on repealing the 8th Amendment will take place early during next summer. It follows on from a tremendously successful Rally for Life on July 1st which attracted 80,000.

‘Save the 8th’ was the key theme at this year’s rally, organised by Precious Life and Youth Defence, and the immense turnout proved just how passionate the Irish people are about saving the 8th. The 8th Amendment to the Irish Constitution ensures that unborn children are given the same legal protection as their mothers’ and is the only legal safeguard which upholds the life of the unborn child. Added to the Irish Constitution in 1983, the 8th Amendment recognises unequivocally the unborn child’s right to life. The 8th has saved thousands of lives since its introduction 34 years ago. The Rally, branded around celebrating our pro-life laws, had a notably large and vibrant youth presence, drawing in many young women like myself. Surely, with tens of thousands of young women present, all united in a mutual passion for saving and cherishing life, we must be heralding a new golden age of pro-life feminism?

It was for that reason that my heart dropped completely when I logged onto Facebook during my work break on Saturday to see a splash of photos showing lively, happy looking young girls my own age sporting the notorious black ‘REPEAL’ jumpers and holding aloft signs promoting a ghastly and incomprehensively anti-feminist agenda at the March for Choice in Dublin. Young women marching to repeal the right to life – the very essence of equality, liberation and logic – is a tragedy which must not be underestimated or shrugged off. Notably from images and videos surfacing online following this weekend’s contrasting March for abortion access, young people and especially young women were out in force. The most visible and prominent demographic present was undoubtedly females aged 18-25 judging from media coverage.

The visible support for abortion in Ireland from the next generation who will be bringing children into the world is alarming and unsettling to say the least. I am convinced about one thing though – the vast majority of those marching for ‘women’s rights’ in the form of abortion do not fully know what a repeal of the eighth amendment would entail.

Many supporters of abortion reform, young college-aged women included, are not in favour of abortion on demand, for any reason right up to birth, which is of course what will happen if the abortion lobby have their way and the eighth amendment is repealed. In fact, in an age where we know so much about the humanity of the preborn child, being able to see our children move on ultrasounds, this viewpoint is often acknowledged as callous, deeply unscientific and downright illogical. As someone who engages actively in pro-life work, I can tell you that many girls we meet on the streets who declare themselves ‘pro-choice feminists’ are opposed to the radical agenda of reckless and unlimited abortion on demand. Rather, they want to see legalisation for cases of rape, disabilities or early-stage abortion. What we know now, judging from every single country on the planet with legalised abortion in place, is that there is no such thing as ‘a little bit of abortion.’ The idea that we can undermine legal protection for every unborn baby and then draw the line is naïve at best, the height of stupidity at worst.

In her speech opening the event, Abortion Rights Campaign member Angela Coraccio called the Eighth Amendment “an instrument of torture” and even termed the country’s current abortion laws “barbaric” – of course, it’s abundantly convenient for these repeal the eighth faux-feminists to forget about the barbarism and violence of an abortion, a procedure which tears a baby limb from limb in the womb or poisons unborn people (very capable of feeling pain) to death.

The tone of the march from what I could gather from videos and images sprawling the internet was militant to say the least. Caoimhe Doyle, also of the Abortion Rights Campaign accused the Government of attempting to “get away with the minimum it can do” on the topic of abortion, and urged those present to make their local TDs aware of the necessity for “free, safe and legal abortion access”. Of course, what we now know after 50 years of legalised abortion in neighbouring mainland UK is that there is no such thing as ‘free, safe, legal’ abortion. For a start, the average abortion costs the tax payer in the UK a staggering £600 at least. More importantly, abortion can never be safe.

Obviously a procedure which ruthlessly takes the life of a defenceless unborn child is always fatal for that little person, but abortion is also notoriously dangerous for women and stands in stark opposition to pro-woman. A recent report from the Care Quality Commission revealed that in the space of just two months, 400 botched abortions took place at Marie Stopes’ centres in the UK. The abysmal report from the Commission sent shockwaves across the UK, busting wide open the myth that women are better off with legal abortion access. As Maria Caulfield, Conservative MP for Lewes said, “The UK abortion industry is knee-deep in allegations of unsafe and unethical practices.” The incompetency and negligence of the U.K’s second largest abortion provider is astonishing but not surprising. The global abortion industry has brought with it countless scandals and horror stories since its conception.

Not only do abortion providers like Marie Stopes have absolutely zero regard for the lives of unborn babies; they also disregard the safety and health of the women whom they claim to care for. The incomprehensibly lucrative abortion industry profits immensely from killing the most vulnerable, innocent and irreplaceable in society and putting women’s lives at risk.

When women are pregnant they need real healthcare and support. For a progressive, medically advanced, compassionate society we need to promote non-fatal healthcare which affirms the precious lives of both mother and child. Every mother deserves to be treated properly and professionally during her pregnancy. No baby deserves to be brutally torn and dismembered limb from limb in the womb or poisoned to death through non-surgical abortion. Every human being should have the fundamental right to life by virtue of their humanity.

“We want full repeal and we want free, safe and legal access for abortion. The 30,000 people that will be marching here today are not looking for a little bit of abortion access…we want full abortion access,” a spokesperson of Abortion Rights Campaign told the media.

Let me ask the crucial question; do the people who marched yesterday really know what these abortion extremists want? It’s undisputable that the vast majority of people who support removing the eighth amendment do not understand the totalitarian and ruthless thought process of the abortion rights campaign. I can assure you that mainstream support for abortion reform in Ireland is reserved to the stand-alone cases: rape, incest and ‘fatal foetal abnormality’. These are the ‘hard cases’ which have been twisted and manipulatively used to gain support for a change in the law from reasonable, ordinary people on the streets of Ireland. The statement by the abortion rights campaigner continued, “At the minimum we want the recommendations of the 'Citizens' Assembly and we won't accept and we can't support any less than that".

This is profoundly worrying. How can anyone possibly want MORE abortion than what the government’s hand-picked 'citizens' assembly called for? Does this mean that they will now be calling for, as some of their ideological 'comrades' are calling for in other countries, post-birth abortion where a baby is killed after its born if the mother so wishes? These people are unhinged, dangerous and callous and they cannot be underestimated. The young women who marched on Saturday need to understand that male or female, our rights as individuals end where another person’s rights begin. Just because I am a woman, that does not give me the right to end the life of another separate, unique and individual human being, with its own separate DNA and identity.

The conversation around the eight amendment is no doubt an enormously difficult topic for the people of Ireland. There are many tragic, difficult, scary, challenges facing mothers, fathers and unborn children every day. There is no doubt that these challenges create enormous stresses and strains on their lives. These challenges bring with them huge stresses and strains. However, I would like to ask those present, particularly self-declared ‘feminists’ at the March for ‘Choice’; should these challenges mean by default that we go straight to taking away the rights and the irreplaceable, unrepeatable life of a unique and willed human being?

Our approach to people should be dedicated to focusing on solutions which ensure that equality and compassion for all are at the heart of laws and that all the necessary health and financial supports be made available to ensure the best outcome for mother and child. Why can’t we invest time and energy into improving the adoption system, the foster care system, perinatal hospice services, and pregnancy resource services? Why go straight to abortion without wishing for so much more for our women in crisis? We deserve so much better than a barbaric and discriminatory system which tears women’s lives apart and snuffs out the lives growing and flourishing within expectant mothers. Ireland is better than abortion. We are better than abortion.

An unborn child is an individual living human being and therefore entitled to Human Rights by virtue of their humanity. Human Rights by their nature should be universal. A question I would put to all marching for abortion access here: why should the most vulnerable sections of humanity be removed from these rights?

In countries where they have removed sectors of humanity from the right to life we have repeatedly seen that sector extended broadly over time. In Britain for instance 90% of all children with Downs Syndrome are aborted before birth. A staggering 1 in 3 UK pregnancies end in the tragedy of abortion – the 1967 Abortion Act was introduced for marginal and selective cases, however now women in the UK can access an abortion for virtually any reason under the sun. The Abortion Act has taken 9 million lives so far. How many lives would repealing the 8th cost us?

We witnessed tens of thousands of young people marching happily on the streets of Dublin under the trendy demand of ‘equality’ and ‘rights’, yet he truth is, in abortion regimes you are far more likely to be aborted if you are disabled. Abortion also discriminates against minorities. More black babies are aborted in New York City than are born. How can we equate abortion with equality, with human rights?

Perhaps most disturbing of all is the fact that abortion discriminates against girls. The March for Choice exemplifies faux-feminism at its very best. Do these women proudly wearing REPEAL jumpers realise that because of sex selective abortions it is estimated that over 100 million women are missing throughout the world?

“Abortion is the ultimate exploitation of women.” — This is a quote from one of the early feminists Alice Paul, which has stayed with me firmly. Properly defined, feminism is a philosophy that embraces basic rights for all human beings without exception—without regard to race, religion, sex, size, age, location, disability or parentage. Feminism rejects the use of force to dominate, control or destroy anyone which is why all legitimate feminists should be profusely against the violence and discrimination of abortion. Let’s hope that we can work together – especially all young pro-life feminists, to illuminate the true horror of abortion and the beauty and equality which can be found in cherishing both lives.